The Carnival

By: PrettynPink8004

A/N: This was written for the Summer-Fun 2004 Challenge. I got Ginny's nickname from the story The Order of Phoenix by Ruskbyte. The story is listed on if you would like to read it.

This is the BETA VERSION!! Thanks Rach for the help! If you like this story, please view my other One Shot Fic stories (also Beta'd by Rach!!)

A few days after her sixth year at Hogwarts ended, Hermione Granger sat on her four-poster bed reading letters from Harry, Ron, and Ginny. They were all replying to her invitation to come over to her house for the rest of the summer. There was a carnival going on in her town, so her mother had insisted that she invite a few friends over for the rest of the summer, while her and her father went off to Paris for a Dental Convention. They would be arriving later in the day after Ron and Ginny went to pick up Harry.

Well, I should start cleaning the house, Hermione thought, I don't want it to look a mess when my friends get here. Especially Ron.

At the thought of Ron, Hermione blushed. Even though the two of them had been going out for almost a year, Hermione could not believe that she finally had her first boyfriend. More importantly, that her first boyfriend was the first person she fell in love with. Of course, he didn't know that she loved him. She wasn't going to tell him that she loved him for a while because he might freak out.

Lost in thought, Hermione hadn't realised that she had been thinking about Ron for almost an hour until the doorbell brought her back from her reverie. Sighing, she got up from her bed, and went to answer the door. As soon she opened it, a pair of strong arms was around her waist and his lips were kissing hers.

"'Mione, I missed you so much," Ron said, his voice slightly muffled by his girlfriend's mass of frizzy hair.

"I missed you too, Ron," Hermione replied, smiling into Ron's chest as she hugged her him back as tightly as she could. She was truly glad to see him and her other friends.

When Ron finally let her go, Hermione looked over at her other two friends, Harry and Ginny, who were holding hands. They had become a couple during the middle of her sixth year after Harry finally realised that he was in love with Ginny. He hadn't known how to tell her, so he came to Hermione and asked for advice. She had told him that if she were him, she would tell Ginny as soon as possible, because other boys had started to notice her. Hermione also knew that Ginny felt the same way for Harry, and if anyone in the world deserved happiness it was him.

"It's good to see you, Hermione," Harry said warmly before he came over to give her a hug and a friendly kiss on the forehead. Then Ginny gave her friend a hug.

After greeting everyone, Hermione let her guests in and brought them up to her room. There, they put their things down and made themselves comfortable. They talked for awhile about their homework, what they had been doing during the summer so far, and the Order. They really didn't have much to say about that because they all knew Voldemort was lying low at the moment.

"Well, do you all want to go to the carnival now?" Hermione asked. She knew they were anxious to go as none of them had ever been to one before. Her parents had provided them all with money to buy their way in, play games, ride rides, and get something to eat.

"Sure, lets go," they said in unison.

After walking for about fifteen minutes, they reached the carnival. The first thing they saw was a man dressed up in a clown suit with rainbow coloured hair, a white face, a red nose, and big red shoes.

"Can you see McGonagall in that outfit?" Harry said, chuckling a bit.

"No, but do you think anyone could pay Malfoy to wear a thing like that?" Ron asked, a mischievous glint in his eye.

"Not for a thousand galleons!" Ginny replied, giggling happily at the idea.

"Come on, you three," Hermione said eagerly. Even though the thought of Malfoy making a fool of himself in that costume was funny, she was anxious to enter the amusement park.

Once inside the carnival, Ron saw a big roller coaster that went high in the air and flipped the people riding it upside down. He instantly wanted to go on that ride, and after a bit of persuading, finally got the girls to agree to ride it, too.

Once the roller coaster started moving, Hermione wasn't sure she wanted to be on it any more. It went really high, and she had a phobia of heights. Instantly, Hermione grabbed onto Ron's hand and held on for dear life.

After the ride was over Hermione said, "That wasn't so bad." Ron looked at her like she was crazy. To him it really hadn't been that bad, but he knew Hermione hadn't liked it at all. She nearly broke his hand by squeezing it so hard.

After riding a few more (considerably smaller) roller coasters, the boys wanted to play some games. The first game, which they eagerly wanted to play, was called, 'How Strong Are You?' They had to hit a round disc with a large hammer and make a ball go up to see how strong they were. If you made the ball go past 50 you won a prize: the bigger the number, the bigger the prize.

Harry, the stronger of the two boys, went first. When he hit the disc the ball went up to 110. He picked a medium sized stuffed black dog, and gave it to Ginny. He told her that it reminded him of Sirius' animagus form and she kissed him happily.

Ron, who was taller but not as strong, went next. When he hit the disc the ball went up to 100. He chose a medium sized grey otter and gave it to Hermione. When he gave it to her he said, "I chose this because it reminded me of the shape your patronus takes. Sleep with that next to your pillow." He laughed.

"It does look rather like my patronus, doesn't it?" She mused, kissing him gently. Ron kissed her back, and soon they forgot that Ginny, Harry, and the man working at the game station were watching them. They did, however, immediately let go of each other and started blushing when they heard Harry have a coughing fit.

Later in the day, the four teens went to go buy themselves something for lunch from the nearest carnival stand. Harry had a burger, Ron had a hot dog, Hermione had chicken strips, and Ginny had a cheese burger. They sat on the bench, getting ready to eat, when Ron saw something out of the corner of his eye. He looked that way, but didn't see anything. He could have sworn he saw someone he knew. Then he heard a faint pop. It sounded like someone was apparating.

"Did you hear that?" Ron asked the other, before starting on his hot dog and fries.

"What?" Ginny asked, sipping her coke.

"It sounded like someone was apparating," he whispered, "and before that, I could have sworn I saw a bag with the label of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes on it."

Just then, a plump man on the street was choking on what looked to be their tongue. They had eaten a piece of the Weasley twins' ton-tongue toffee. The man's wife started shrieking and calling around for help. There was soon a medical person on the scene.

"Something funny is going on," Ginny said nervously.

"Fred and George are here somewhere, I'm sure of it," Harry said, while reaching in his pocket for the Marauder's Map. He was secretly glad he always kept it with him.

"There they are," Hermione said, leaning over and looking at the map. They should have only been a few feet away. However, when they looked up, there were only two of the clowns laughing hysterically.

"You two have a lot of explaining to do," Ron said.

Later that night Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Ginny were sitting around Hermione's room talking about the carnival and how much fun they had.

"I can't believe the twins were checking up on their Ickle Ronniekins and their Little Gin Gin," Harry said laughing hysterically.

"Shut up," Ron said, while Ginny smacked him playfully on the arm.

"I wonder what happened to the man that swallowed the toffee," Hermione thought out loud. She felt a little sorry for him, and didn't know how muggle doctors would cure something like that.

"Don't worry, love, I'm sure he's fine. We'll probably read about it in the paper tomorrow morning," Ron stated, pulling his girlfriend in between his legs, wrapping his arms around her, and holding her close to him.

After talking about the day's events and what Fred and George had done, the teens got into their sleeping bags and drifted off to sleep.